The Associated Students of the University of Nevada, Reno senators met on March 12 to discuss three bills on the table. However, the executive board was almost entirely absent, sending their reports in to the speaker or attending on Zoom for the meeting.
The senators started the meeting off by hearing a presentation from the Office of Information and Technology about the recent news involving the decommission of Google emails at the university. To see more about this discussion click here.
The senate then moved into the discussion and presentation of bills on the agenda.
S. R. 91: A Resolution to Promote Equity, Inclusion and Integrity in the School of Social Work
This piece was postponed until the March 6 senate meeting so that it could be fast-tracked.
S. B. 91: A Binding Resolution to Add An Undocumented Student Programs Liaison Position to the Committee of IDEA
This resolution, presented by Diana Landazuri, senator for the College of Business, and Arthur-James Okwuosa, director of the Department of Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility is almost the exact same wording as the previous bill passed [LINK] to implement a liaison position to the department of IDEA.
Joel Martin, senator for the College of Liberal Arts, wanted to ask the head of the committee on IDEA why this bill was important.
Aween Ali, senator for the College of Engineering, said because her committee focuses on policy work and legislation. While the department focuses on outreach and events, she said it feels like they are connecting undocumented students to both parts of ASUN and extending representation in both areas.
The bill was passed unanimously.
S. B. R. 91: An Act to Publicize the Senate Legislation Tracker and S. B. 91: An Act to Publicize the Senate Legislation Tracker
Carmina Aglubat, the new senator for the College of Liberal Arts, presented her new legislation to create a senate legislation tracker to present an open front and accessible insight into what is happening with ASUN legislation and where senators are in their process of presenting bills and resolutions. She separated this in two bills because it would require changing information in the Statutes of the Associated Students.
Aglubat added that the legislative tracker would look the same as their internal one, but it would be publicly accessible and senators would be required to update it.
Currently under the bill, if senators do not update their resolutions and bills for students to see, they will earn penalizing points which could result in censure or eventual termination.
Joel Martin, senator for the College of Liberal Arts, added that he thinks this is a good implementation, but he asked if it was necessary that they accumulate points for not updating the tracker.
Fayza Salah, the speaker of the senate, said she wasn’t sure if they could give senators points since writing legislation is not required of senators.
“I mean everyone should be writing legislation but it’s not required,” Salah said.
Aglubat added that they won’t be penalized for not writing legislation, but instead it’s to keep senators accountable for acknowledging and updating the tracker.
The discussion of points was the central topic of concern by many senators across the board. Aglubat said she was open to another accountability project since points are a “scary” thing for this table and ASUN.
A suggestion from Aween Ali, senator for the College of Engineering, was connecting outreach forms so that you have to update the tracker and fill out outreach information or earn points for not doing both.
After some discussion, many people agreed the bill needs changes and potential work but should go back to committee and instead be referred to the committee on oversight instead of going back to the committee on government and operations.
When the senators asked why Martin’s committee passed these pieces through the committee but did not feel they were both ready on the table. Martin said he was passing through the committee because he wanted the rest of the senate table to hear and consider the piece. Martin added that he had two different votes on each of the pieces since one has points involved, but the other is just amending the SAS.
He also argued that they should not send it back to committee but instead fix it all together at the table.
However, the rest of the senate table sent the pieces to the committee on oversight, with only one vote “no” from Martin.
The bill also brought up tensions about the “unspoken rule” to not put out your hand out to talk when another senator is speaking. It was not against the rules, but Salah said it was her personal philosophy to be respectful to the other senators, but they can do it if they would like.
Jaedyn Young can be reached at ja*********@***********nr.edu or on Twitter @jaedyn_young3.
